Duck Notes

Solve for X

2012-02-02T15:19:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday my love!

You'll have to figure out how old she is for yourself. I'm not allowed to do your homework for you.

Botanical Lunch

2012-01-31T09:54:00.000-05:00

With this crazy great January weather, I took the opportunity to walk around the South Carolina Botanical Gardens in Clemson during one of my lunch breaks.

I have been there several times before, but this was the first time I found this sculpture.

It's called Crucible: Crucibulum Evoltum

Inside, the stone floor spirals down to the center where a natural spring bubbles up. Directly above the spring is an opening to the sky.

It was a really interesting sculpture tucked away in the woods and I enjoyed exploring it on a quiet afternoon. There are probably other treasures out there that I've over looked in my prior visits.

I finished my lunch on a nature trail as I examined the texture of the bark of various trees.

Can you name them all?

Time for a Date

2012-01-29T11:18:00.000-05:00

Cari and I went on a date Friday night and we decided to head into downtown Greenville. After dinner, we walked around town and started a game. As we passed strangers on the sidewalk, we'd hear parts of their conversation, and then we would fill in the blanks of the story.

There was the street preacher, the girl crying out like a horse (yeah...true), and the couple on the bridge. The couple on the bridge was our favorite. They were each dressed up a bit and standing a few steps away from each other. As we approached, it was obvious in their body language that they weren't having a great evening. The woman said something about not wanting to spend time with him. "That's why I made other plans for tonight! I don't want to be with you." He mumbled a response as we passed them and as we got farther away I heard her say something about him calling all the time.

Cari and I had a great time trying to figure out that story. If she had made other plans and didn't want to be with him, how did they both end up dressed nicely, standing on a bridge together? Cari's favorite scenario for them is that the woman was at a nearby restaurant with her friends when the stalker boyfriend stood on the sidewalk tapping on the windows. She finally had to come out and confront him.

We made our way over to Falls Park and got coffee in a place filled with hipsters. Then we saw it. This sign.

Under 18 not allowed in the park after 10pm. I looked around for some teens so I could point my finger and taunt them. As I was choosing my target, Cari grabbed my arm and stopped me. "It's not ten o'clock yet."

Even though the teens were allowed in the park with us, it was still a great date and we had a great time.

Your Serving Size Is Stupid

2012-01-27T09:23:00.000-05:00

How many pop tarts are in a foil package? Two. How many pop tarts make up a serving size? One.
What the hell should I do with the other one? It's in a foil pouch that disintegrates as soon as you start to open it. If they intend for you to only eat one at a time, then they should wrap them individually. Is this more efficient packaging in action? That's not possible! Once I start to open it, if I only eat one as they supposedly expect, then I'll have to find some other means of wrapping up the extra tart. Where's the efficiency in that? This isn't about packaging or anything else innocent. This is about a scam! They want to put lower values on the nutritional label to encourage you ... no. . .. to trick you into thinking their product isn't so bad.

I'm okay with having multiple servings in the same package. There are plenty of examples of this. Stuff like BREAD does this. They usually include a twist tie so I can get my serving of bread and then close it back up. It's not like you tear open a foil pouch containing a loaf of bread, get your one or two pieces out, and then look at it like, "What the f*ck am I supposed to do with the rest of this bread?"

I'm just waiting for other companies to really start taking advantage of this. Things like candy bars. Imagine a Snickers with two servings. What are you supposed to do with a half eaten Snickers? I'll tell you what. If you want your nutritional info to look great, just jack up the servings per container. Let's make a Snickers bar equal to thirty servings. At that point, I'd print "ONLY 9 CALORIES" really large on the wrapper. People would be on the damn Snickers diet the next day! This makes about as much sense to me as 2 servings in a pop tart pouch.

(Yes. I know the picture I posted is not Pop-Tart brand. But it's the same thing and the same issue)

Life Without Television

2012-01-25T09:53:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while I'll spot something while I'm driving and say, "Oh! Look at that!". Most of the time I just keep driving and thinking about how cool that thing was. When I drove past this piece of graffiti in an industrial part of town, I immediately started looking for a place to turn around or make a u-turn.

I picture someone with a can of spray paint walking around town looking for a canvas. Here was a run-down industrial building at the intersection of a main road, perfect for getting the message out.

So what's the artist trying to say? Life without television looks horrible? Maybe the artist wants us to contemplate our lives without television.

Then again, maybe the intention was to get someone to say, "Oh! Look at that!"

Temple Run

2012-01-23T07:33:00.000-05:00

This four year old is going for the record score in Temple Run.

It's just a matter of days before her skill and concentration defeats us all.

South Carolina Rocks!

2012-01-21T14:05:00.000-05:00

Time to vote for a Republican. They say that being an early primary state is good for us. We get a lot of attention for this. All the media is scouring the countryside interviewing people. All the candidates are hopping from town to town clapping their hands. The bonus is all of them are talking about South Carolina. It's like free advertising.

What they didn't tell us, the citizens of this beautiful State, is that we'd have to put up with so much noise. Political ads are almost impossible to escape unless you lock yourself in your room. But even then, Santorum, will still be standing in your yard throwing pebbles at your window.

And now it's time to go vote for a Republican.

Eight Cents Too High

2012-01-19T08:30:00.000-05:00

Some people will drive several blocks, or even across town to find the cheapest gas. The joke has always been that you'll spend more money in gas getting there than the amount you'll save shopping there. Usually, gas prices don't vary more than a few cents from store to store in the same town.

Me? I just buy gas where ever I am when the car runs out. I don't have time to be filling up all the time, so I just wait until I think it's about to shut off and then pop into a station. When I got to that point yesterday I had the choice of two gas stations. One was a local "cheap gas" option and the other was a Shell station.

Shell was TEN CENTS higher than their cheap neighbor. Really? If Shell was two cents higher, I might have chosen them. Partly because of their advertising about how awesome they are. But for a dime a gallon I'll just stay on this side of the intersection.

It would have cost me more to fill up at Shell than driving across the street.

You Must Choose

2012-01-17T08:44:00.000-05:00

Board game vs Video game.

On Sunday after lunch I made each kid choose if they would rather play a board game with the family or play their video games. I indicated they could have one or the other, not both, although the older kids pleaded for that option.

As I went around the table polling the family with my question I found that the four year old quickly chose the board game. The older children sitting at the table winced and squished their faces in pain as they were forced to choose the board game (the answer they knew I wanted) or their video games.

After much deliberation and after I assured them that my feelings weren't going to be hurt no matter the answer, I got my answers. Meredith chose the video games and Randy, refusing to answer, asked his sister to answer for him. Not wanting to be alone in her choice, she chose video games for Randy, but I could tell he wasn't upset with the result.

So for the next hour or two the children went their separate ways to play video games. Then I brought out a board game and started setting it up. One by one, the electronics were turned off and everyone came to the table. Yes, the four year old was the first one there.

It turns out that we had plenty of time for both electronic and non-electric games that day. When we were finishing up our board game, Randy asked, "So why did you make us choose only one earlier." I told him I was just curious what they would say.

Truly, I knew I was setting myself up by making them choose. We limit access to the video games pretty strictly most of the time, so their time playing games is precious to them. I wasn't surprised that the video games won the vote, but it made me glad that they struggled with their choice.

Um. . . ewwwww..

2012-01-15T07:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday at lunch I decided to snap this quick photo of Meredith. Shortly after the photo she went to take a drink and found some chunks of food floating in her cup. Her little sister was sitting next to her but wouldn't confess to anything.

What Are You Using?

2012-01-13T08:57:00.000-05:00

There used to be five, and sometimes more, toothbrushes in the bathroom. Considering the amount of people living in my house, that felt about right.

Last night I went into the bathroom and saw only one toothbrush.

Mine.

This concerned me greatly. First of all, was there some issue in the bathroom that everyone felt a need to remove their toothbrush? Second, what are they using now that there is only one in there.

Real Tears

2012-01-11T09:33:00.000-05:00

Yeah. Those are real tears rolling down her cheeks. When your baby is crying, what's the first thing you do? I have a feeling picking up your camera isn't how you answered.

Consuming the News

2012-01-09T09:54:00.000-05:00

If you want to read the news then buy a ~~newspaper~~ smart phone or a tablet.

Probably the thing I use my tablet for more than any other purpose is consuming the news. There are countless apps to assist you in doing this. Many will gather up news from a pile of sources which gives a better spectrum than if you were just on one site or app such as CNN. These apps require a range of setup on your part so you can determine what subjects get priority.

After trying around a dozen news apps, I've determined that there isn't a single solution for the way I read the news. I've got it narrowed down to three main apps. If you use an Android tablet or smart phone, and you want to read the news, then these are my recommendations. These aren't the only three apps I use for getting news, but they are the principle ones I use.

News360 - this is my first stop when I'm looking for headlines. First off, this app looks great and is easy to navigate. This one takes no setup on your part. Just load it up and you'll see the categories listed to the side. Two features pushed this app my list of favorites. First is Twitter integration. While reading a story you can hit a button and see what people on Twitter are saying about the story. You can also add your tweet about the story, including a link if you choose, from within this app. Second, while reading a story, the top of the page shows you what site the content came from and also other news sources that have the story. Meaning you can read the same story from two or more sources. Think one is biased? Then read another. I have used this multiple times on stories. Especially if some sources are more local to the story. Usually that local source will have more detailed info than the national sources.

Pulse - Pulse takes a few minutes to get up and going. From a list, choose the sites where you want your content to come from. You can also add your own favorite sites if you don't see the one you are looking for. There are also options in Pulse to add your Facebook feed. After setting up your content sources and organizing them on pages, you are ready to go. In the app, you have horizontal strips of boxes. Each horizontal line is a source (ex. Time magazine), and each box in the line is a story that you can click on. You decide which order the sources are stacked and can create multiple pages to organize your view. The resulting grid of boxes makes it very easy to quickly scan and read multiple news sites and their headlines.

Currents - This is a new one by Google for their tablets. Currents reads like a magazine. I tend not to use it as much for head lines, but for reading and viewing longer articles like you may do in a magazine. The layout is great and is easy to use. Again, you are choosing your sources, but this is very easy to use and doesn't take much time or effort to get up and running.

And now I know why newspapers are dying. Besides having coupons folded into their pages, the need for them is fading away. Most of my local news uses Twitter nowadays and I can quickly find out about headlines happening around town on my smart phone and without buying a paper.

1,500 POSTS!!!!

2012-01-07T09:11:00.000-05:00

That's a lot of words! That's a lot of posts!

October 18, 2004 was my first post on this blog. More than seven years of writing and still going!
Largest number of posts in a year: 2005 with 266 posts. (2011 had 184)

The post with the largest number of views, well over 10,000 views, is Murphy's Village.
I don't believe that is representative of my best blog post, but I have learned that key words will draw an audience pretty quickly. Writing about gypsies is one of those key words. That is also the only post that I had to shut down comments. For months after writing the post I would get comments either VERY against the Travelers or VERY supportive. This blog isn't meant to be a sounding board for those arguments, so I had to shut down the comments.

Another key word that quickly gets attention is NAKED. My post last month about Santa is Naked quickly got over 100 views. Considering my average post in the past few years doesn't get more than 12 views, it appears that a lot of people are searching Google for a Naked Santa. Sick.

It's a good thing I don't write this blog hoping for a huge audience. Fact is, there aren't many of you reading this. My motivation to keep going is partly for my joy of sitting down and writing and partly me keeping a (public) journal of my life. Besides family, readers have come and gone over the years. Three come to mind that have stuck around longer than most.

Farm Girl - who I happened upon years ago by reading blogs and following links to other blogs. She's got some great photography and enjoyable writing.
Melba - she hasn't updated this blog in a few months, but she has others. Melba was an email pen-pal before you even knew what email was.
Random Connections - a local (to me) blogger that shares a lot of the same interests as myself. Also a great writer with a lot of wisdom.

As my kids get older and I get busier driving them around town, I feel like I have less time than I used to. I'm sure there are the same number of hours in a day as there were seven years ago, but it doesn't always feel like it. As a result, I find it harder to stop and read blogs like I used to do. Sometimes it's all I can do to keep writing this one.

Originally, I intended to post a top ten blog posts here, but I couldn't do it. I started scrolling through posts from the beginning and as I was reminded of different events in my life or things I've said, I found it hard to find "the best". If you have a few minutes to kill, and you have any interest, the archive is always available in the margin of the blog. Some of the pictures from seven years ago made me say, "Wow! The kids were YOUNG."

Only one post has ever been deleted from the blog. It had something to do with peeing in a jar. That's all I'll say about that! (Note - that isn't the only post about peeing in a jar! Seriously!)

April Fool's posts are usually fun to write. Since I normally post the truth, making up a complete lie is entertaining for me. I hope it is for you too.

Well, I think I've come to the end of blog number 1,500. I appreciate you stopping by to read, especially, all the way to the end! Although some say that social media sites like Facebook and Google+ have killed blogs, I intend to keep writing, and I hope you keep stopping by to see what I have to say.

My goal for the blog this year is to add in more posts of ranting about random stuff that pops in my head. I'm afraid you'll tire of the, "we went to the park" blogs if I don't try and mix it up a bit. Those random rant blogs take a bit more effort and time on my part, so the number of those posts will be directly related to the amount of quiet time I can scrounge up.

We'll pick back up on Monday morning with post 1501.

Swoozie

2012-01-05T12:20:00.000-05:00

For a long time I didn't use YouTube because it was hard for me to find content that interested me. I would go and search for a specific topic or video and then leave the site. Over the past year I've started to subscribe to some people that consistently post great videos and I've found myself using YouTube more because of it. It's about content discovery. It can be hard to get started. Once you have found some stuff that interests you, you realize there are some great things on YouTube.

One person that I recommend you check out goes by the name of Swoozie. I first found Adande's videos through a link to his video about working at Disney. If you haven't seen it you should. He also made a second video about Disney that is equally entertaining. That got me interested in seeing what else he does and I haven't found a video of his yet that isn't fun to watch.

You know what it is? First of all, it's his ability to tell a story. Some people, and you know this, don't know how to tell a story. Adande knows how to tell a story and that talent alone makes his videos worth watching. But it doesn't stop there, his talent at editing together his story and adding in animation puts the polish on his stories. You may not like his style, but I really enjoying listening to him tell a story.

Do you have a favorite person to watch on YouTube? Let me know if you have a recommendation. In the meantime be sure you watch the Disney video that Swoozie put together.

15 years

2012-01-03T10:47:00.000-05:00

I've been working for the same company for fifteen years now. At their amazement that I lasted this long, they decided to offer me a gift. I'm not sure how other companies amazed and bewildered by a long lasting employee offer rewards, but my company sent me to a website and urged me to select a gift.

I was expecting jackets and watches that feature the company logo, and those were a part of the offering, but there were also dozens of other items I could choose. More jewelry, a camping tent, binoculars, a dart board, and cooking ware are all on the list.

There was nothing that struck me that it was "the" item. As a result, I haven't selected anything yet. I've been back to the website twice to review and narrow down my options. I'm down to a tent and a watch. I don't really need either but I'd probably use those the most. I'm not sure why I'm taking it so seriously. Maybe because it's a one time deal, like if I choose the wrong item I'll be stuck with it forever.

After fifteen years you would think I would be able to make a decision! In the back of my head I keep telling myself that I ought to hurry up and make my selection before they fire me and I miss the opportunity.

History Filled New Year

2012-01-01T12:12:00.000-05:00

It's been too long since we've taken a field trip, so Cari and I sprung a surprise trip on the kids for New Year's Eve yesterday. "We're going on a picnic", we told them. That part was true. We just didn't explain where the picnic was going to be until the car was loaded.

Even after they were told we were headed to Ninety Six National Historic Site for some hiking and history, there was very little (if any) complaining. AWESOME!

Ninety Six is the site of a earthen works fort called Star fort - named for it's shape - and was the site of two revolutionary war battles. The longest of these battles was a month long siege of the fort when Patriots tried to attack and take the fort from the army loyal to England. The fort was connected to the town of Ninety Six by a three foot deep trench that provided cover for men and supplies traveling between the two. The town was also the site of a successful trading post. Merchants and Indians both came to town along several trading roads to buy and sell their wares.

In the park, you can see the mounds of earth that were the steep walls of the fort. It doesn't show as well in my photos, but standing there, it is very clear how the Star fort stood to protect the town of Ninety Six. During the siege, the Patriots dug trenches at night that slowly lead to the fort walls. A wooden tower was built, nearly 30 foot tall, to allow Patriot sharp shooters to fire into the fort. This tower forced the army in the fort to build their walls even taller with sandbags.

In the end, word came that thousands of Loyalist soldiers were on their way to support the fort and the Patriot force had to make a decision. Leave or attack. Fifty Patriots stormed the fort but were unable to breach the high walls. Thirty of them were killed or wounded.

After the attack, the Loyalists were ordered to burn and abandon the fort and town. The location in the back country of South Carolina was too remote from other bases to be supported in an area where Patriots were gaining.

You can see more photos and more detail of the are by visiting the website.

The promised picnic:

The hike to history:

Standing back where the Patriots attacked from... the path roughly follows some of the trenches dug by the Patriots. You can see the mounds of earth near the path. In the back of the photo you can see the larger hill - the eroded walls of the fort. These trenches were originally 5-6' deep, providing protection as they approached the fort. Most of the work would have been done at night in the cover of darkness. By the way, the soil down here is red clay. Described as digging into soft rocks.

A partial reconstruction of the tower. A few small cannons were also used to fire upon the fort.

This was taken at a reconstruction of another fort at the site. These types of sharpened poles also lined the walls of the Star fort. If an attacker breached the first line of defense, a line of sharpened branches - like ancient barbed wire, they would have to cross into the trench and then climb up a steep hill and around these poles while being fired at and stabbed with bayonets.

Trips like these are some of my favorite family field trips. At times, it gets so busy around here that we don't make it out as often as we'd like. We're (Cari and I) hoping 2012 provides even more opportunity for these trips. Not sure the kids are excited about that hope, but we won't tell them until the car is loaded.

The Show

2011-12-30T09:39:00.000-05:00

The baby (not such a baby these days) got some animal hand puppets on Christmas and Cari made an awesome stage for the animals to perform in.

We've only seen a few shows this week. Once she gets used to the puppets a bit more I hope to get a video of one of her shows. Right now the shows mostly consist of one animal hitting the other. Something I believe she learned from her older brother.

Maybe we'll get Cari to write a script for the show. And direct the show. And be a stage hand. And feed the actors. And . . . maybe Cari didn't realize that she also got hand puppets for Christmas.

Color coded germs

2011-12-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

A week before Christmas the baby was sick for a night. She was throwing up and just miserable. The next day she slept a lot but was eating by that evening.

That was a Friday night. On Sunday Cari and I both started feeling sick and spent many hours on the couch. That evening we were throwing up and just miserable. Late Sunday night the boy came down with it. Our daughter was spared the illness because she has friends. She was spending the night with a friend while the rest of the family suffered.

All this illness in the house got me thinking about the weekend. I really thought I had done a decent job of avoiding the baby the night she was sick and even most of the next day. Apparently I didn't avoid ALL of the right places.

With the medical marvels we have in this country I'm putting in a request for a new product. When a family member starts to get sick you give them this pill. The pill won't make them better. That's not what's important here. What the pill does is cause the germ making them sick turn fluorescent. That way I could walk into my kids room to check on them, see that everything near the bed glows green, and quickly evacuate the room. When the germ dies, the color dies with it. Multiple people in your house sick at once? Use different color pills.

When you come home from work and there is a yellow glow in your bedroom, a green glow in the living room, and the kitchen glows red, then you know you're in trouble. But at least you would know when you found a safe spot in your home and could avoid the illness. Just find the patch of floor that isn't glowing.

Imagine going to work and your coworker has a nasty green glow around him. Well, maybe that's already the case for some of you, but if we had fluorescent pills, it would justify your fear of shaking his glowing hand.

Don't like my idea? What's your suggestion to avoiding the plague?

Christmas: Before and After

2011-12-26T18:04:00.001-05:00

Before:

After:

Look closely and you may find a few errors in the photo because I was taking a panoramic photo with my phone. Errors or not, the mess was real.

I used my tablet and I liked it!

2011-12-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

When I purchased my tablet it was because I wanted one. Not because I needed one. In fact I struggled to think of any reason why I would need one when trying to justify the purchase to Cari.

Since owning it, I have not regretted it. I still don't have reasons for needing it, but I do use it. I read a lot of news on the tablet in the evenings. I watch some You Tube, and I've also started reading some books. Nothing exciting, but I'm using it.

Last week I took my tablet with me to basketball practice and had my "Ah! Ha!" moment of owning a tablet. I was at the gym, sitting in the bleachers during practice. There was no wifi (serious!) so I couldn't use the internet or read the news. Instead I:

Loaded up Antipaper Notes to write some notes and draw a related sketch.
Next I turned on Google Music to play some music that was previously loaded onto the tablet. While the music quietly played into my headphones I opened the Kindle app to read some more of the book I've been reading. After reading for a while, I chose a different play list of music and started Google Docs and typed up an outline of a blog.

When basketball practice was over, I felt like I had accomplished a lot of things that I had on my mind that evening. *note: all the apps I used that night cost me a total of $0.00

I actually had a productive moment with my tablet. I used my tablet and I liked it!

I wasn't even connected to Wifi! Imagine if I had been. . . I would have had all the distractions of the internet and got nothing done at all.

Norris Christmas Parade

2011-12-22T10:02:00.000-05:00

Every small town wants to have their own Christmas parade around here and the town of Norris is no exception. This year we headed down to watch their parade on a beautiful Saturday morning.

There wasn't a huge crowd when we arrived, but people were gathering around the several block long parade route down the main street.

In the parade there was one marching band, several riding mowers, a tap dancing troupe, some churches, a few motorcycles, and a John Deere tractor! Yes, Santa was riding atop a fire truck and every piece of the parade threw out armfuls of candy to the kids. Seriously, we came home with more candy from that parade than Halloween night.

But the group that won the day was the public works dept of the town of Central (neighbors of Norris). On the back of a flatbed truck was a closed outhouse and a sewer pipe. Out of the sewer pipe climbed the Grinch and some helpers. Some music started and the Grinch mingled around the crowd doing a dance. As this took place, the doors to the outhouse - facing each side of the road - flew open to reveal a man sitting there, jeans at his ankles. He was pumping his arms to the music and singing!

It's great to see these smaller towns put on fun events. Just be warned if you try to use an outhouse in Central someone may peek in to see if you are dancing.

Christmas Photo Day 3: The Results

2011-12-20T09:09:00.000-05:00

And it's done. I'm going to be picky picky picky about the photos I take and there are a few flaws in this one. Chances are there would be flaws in the next one too. Like I said last week, this was one of the smoothest photos we have taken for Christmas. It seems like there is always a kid crying when we try to all look the same direction and smile. Not this year!

Merry Christmas blogosphere!

Pet Food

2011-12-18T11:19:00.000-05:00

Creating and selling separate cat food and dog food is a waste of time and money. Make one big bag labeled, "PET FOOD". Trust me, the animals don't care. You are only buying separate food to satisfy yourself.

OMG! How Old?

2011-12-16T09:32:00.000-05:00

It's another birthday. My own this time. How old am I now? I have to go back and look at last years blog to get a reminder. With all this technology, I just need an app that reminds me of these things. What? Oh! There is an app for that! It's called a calendar. Maybe someone should get me one for my birthday.

Lost a Friend

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the funeral of a great friend. Scott Layman. His parents adopted me and my family when we moved here years ago. Since that time we have been a part of the Layman family as they have been a part of ours.

I can't sit here and write a eulogy because I don't believe I could ever do a sufficient enough job for what Scott deserves but I do want to tell you just a bit about him.

I'll tell you that Scott was one of those guys that you instantly became friends with. Someone with a welcoming smile at all times. If you needed help, and Scott could help you, there was no doubt that it would be done.

Everyone that knew Scott already misses him, and always will.

Obituary

Christmas Photo - Day 2 : Santa is NAKED

2011-12-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

We took our family Christmas photo yesterday with some great results. I think this was the easiest time we have had trying to get everyone to cooperate and smile at the same time. As a bonus, no tears were shed during this process!

Unfortunately, I ran out of time last night to go through and get the best ones put together for a blog. So that'll come later in the week. I will share one preview with you today.

The faces you see in this photo are in reaction to someone in the family saying,

"I'm picturing Santa naked!"

I'll let you guess who said it.

Christmas Photo - Day 1

2011-12-10T09:47:00.000-05:00

Cari and I have been talking about doing our family Christmas picture this week. It'll probably happen before the weekend is over. We thought about doing it the other night when I got home from work, but one kid was grumpy, one kid was busy, and the third one was dirty. We decided to wait.

I'm arguing a case of using individual photos this year. We'll just staple them all together like a flip book.

Fresh Air

2011-12-08T09:50:00.000-05:00

I woke up one morning and looked out my window to see my neighbor with a canopy in his front yard. I didn't think that was too unusual or even noteworthy.

What I did find noteworthy was what appeared to be a computer setup located under the canopy. He even had an extension cord running back into the house. Not sure what this is all about but maybe he wanted some fresh air while he played a bit of WOW. Maybe someone in the house didn't want the computer inside anymore. What's your theory?

Three AM

2011-12-06T10:16:00.000-05:00

How do you know when you've found a great video game?

For me, knowing I found a great game comes at three in the morning. That's when I finally look over at a clock and realize the sun will be up in a few hours. Even then, I contemplate taking one more turn before sneaking off to bed. At that point I know I'm playing a great game.

Those "one more turn" games are rare. Sure, some games will get me to midnight or one AM, but to get to three without realizing it doesn't happen very often. The most famous 3AM game that comes to mind is Civilization (any of them). In Civilization you're building your civilization and expanding your borders while negotiating or fighting your neighbors. There's a plan in your mind and you need one more turn to advance your continously developing plans.

Over the past two weeks I've discovered another 3AM game. Minecraft. You may have heard of it, and if not, you probably will as it gets more references in the main stream media.

Minecraft drops you into a 3D world created of cubes and allows you to build and develop it however you please. There are oceans, deserts, forrests, plains, snow fields, and mountains in this world. It's great just to wander around admiring the landscape but it's better to start building. Before you start building your first house, you'll have to go gather up the raw materials. Getting wood from a tree isn't too dificult, but from there you'll be building tools and other items to make life easier for yourself.

Light washes across the world as time passes from morning to night. At night, the monsters come out and try to get you (just like real life), so I suggest you stay tucked inside during these hours unless you are prepared to fight.

Minecraft will get a gamer to 3am with no problem as the imagination eggs you on to develop your world. As one thing takes shape it often has you dreaming of your next project. Before you know it, it's 3am and you realize you're playing a great game.

Great Things!

2011-12-04T11:41:00.000-05:00

Google released a new app recently for their tablets. Google Catalogs. This sounded like a total chick app to me. Seriously? Browsing catalogs for stuff I'm not going to buy? Lame.

Did I download it? Heck yeah I did! I figured this is the perfect app to show Cari how great having a tablet can be.

I installed the lame shopping app onto my tablet and asked Cari to join me on the couch so I could show her a "super awesome new app".

An hour later we were still shopping the huge list of catalogs and I was adding stuff to my favorites list.

Capacity

2011-12-02T09:38:00.000-05:00

It seems like "Maximum Capacity" should be a 2 in this situation.

Tie-Dye

2011-11-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

I don't think I have ever done tie-dye and recently, I got the idea that we should try it. We used RIT dye with some hot water and set up our operations at the table. I don't have a lot of photos from the activity because I was too busy making shirts for myself.

This was an easy activity that we all enjoyed. The results looked great, nobody spilled any of the buckets, and it was cheap.

BUT. . . The colors that we initially saw were faded quickly during a first wash. In addition, the red didn't seem to set because we washed the red shirts together and they all bled into the white - making pink shirts. Most of what we made still looks good and the kids had a great time making it and now I can say that I've done tie-dye.

Lemonade Sketch

2011-11-28T10:49:00.000-05:00

Took me a while to re-find this for you. Enjoy.

Crumby

2011-11-26T11:01:00.001-05:00

I got into bed last night and immediately had the sense that someone had crushed up some croutons and poured them under the blankets. I jumped back out of bed and stared into the darkness for a moment.

I brushed my hand across the bed sheet and felt not just a few crumbs, but a sandbox full of bread under the blanket. What the. . .?

As I started to remove the remains of someone's snack I found one large chunk. Again I ask, "What the . . ."?

After a bit of clean up I was able to get back into bed with the smallest crumbs remaining. It's like having a pebble in your shoe, and leaving it there.

This morning I asked Cari what she had been eating in the bed yesterday. "Nothing." she said. I told her my story about last night and she acted like she didn't notice any crumbs. "Really?", I said. "There was enough bread in that bed to bread ten chicken breast"!

After some further investigation it turns out that one of the kittens had been given a crust of bread. The cat decided to eat that snack in my bed. This prompted a new rule in the house:

Rule 294: Do not give cats crusty bread.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some vacuuming to do.

Painting with a Flashlight

2011-11-24T11:23:00.000-05:00

I've seen this done on Flickr. In fact, I've seen it done a million times better than what I accomplished. I set my camera up in a dark room just try it and see how it would go. Making these photos was pretty easy and was a lot of fun to try. Basically, you set your camera shutter to stay open for several seconds, I was using eight, and then use a flashlight pointed at the camera to draw lines in your photograph. The first few times I just waved the flashlight like a crazy person, and that pretty much was the result I got.

I handed Cari the flashlight and this was her first try:

This was my last try at it:

I have some other ideas for the next time I give this a try. One of my ideas is to try and write my name. It will be backwards in the photo, but I should be able to flip it in Photoshop to make the letters right.

Punch You in the Face

2011-11-22T10:24:00.000-05:00

Have you ever had a coworker that everytime they spoke you wanted to punch them in the face?

This person isn't necessarily a bad person. It's not always pure evil that brings the punchy feeling out. Maybe this person is really friendly. So overly friendly that the snake like qualities show through the smile and you know it's fake. Maybe it's the endless posturing. Maybe a good punch to the face will knock some posturing out of a person like this. I don't know.

These are some questions that I won't ever know the answers to. I don't resort to violence to solve my problems. Unlike the UC Davis campus police dept.

So how do you handle that posturing, snak-ey co-worker without a punch to the face? Stay focused on what's important. Ignore the non-sense and keep on working.

Shhh

2011-11-20T16:18:00.001-05:00

Not much to say today so I took some leaves inside for some photography.

Scavenger Hunter

2011-11-18T11:27:00.000-05:00

I had a scavenger hunt last night at my house. We were hunting for all things battery operated. I know you've had this hunt in your house. You just opened something new that needs some batteries or you want to use a battery operated item that has dead batteries. At that point, it becomes an all out search. Nothing battery operated is safe!

The batteries I needed were triple A. Ugh. Those are the tough ones. I mean, double A are just laying all around the house. Everything uses AA. Everything except this wireless keyboard I'm dying to try out with my tablet.

I start my search in the living room. TV and DVD remotes use AAA . . . I think. After I found the two remotes, and popped open their battery doors, I realized that no, they don't use triple A. Next stop was kids toys. No AAA there either, but the kids complained that they, too, need some AAA batteries.

At this point, Cari suggested I run over to the store and get a package of batteries. It would take fifteen minutes to do that and be home again. But I refused her suggestion.

I checked the junk drawer for the third time thinking that the elusive batteries were hiding in the bottom of the drawer. Nope.

I headed into the office and started digging through a box of random stuff in a closet. There I found a small blinking light that clips to your belt while walking or biking. I don't think I've touched this light in ten years. I clicked the switch on and it started to blink. Upon popping the cover off, I discovered two AAA batteries. SCORE!

This scavenger hunt only took me forty minutes to come up with two AAA batteries. These were Sears DieHard branded batteries manufactured in the 1990's. Is Sears even still around? My cordless keyboard worked beautifully with these batteries.

Now I know where to look the next time I go on a scavenger hunt for AAA batteries.

Late Shaver

2011-11-16T09:33:00.000-05:00

It may not always appear to be the case, but I really don't want to be late to work in the morning. Most times I make a good effort at being on time.

That's why I was so frustrated driving to work yesterday morning. I was about five minutes from the house and tracking five minutes early to work!! I was going to be to work prior to the start of my shift. That really is something to be excited about.

That good feeling came to a hault as I caught a glimpse of myself in the rear view. Two large patches of my face were missed while shaving. They were obvious. I believe the other cars around me on the road could even see them.

I considered my options but wearing a SARS mask for the day didn't seem like my best option so I turned the car around to re-shave. This time trying harder to get my entire face.

After quickly shaving, I jumped back into the car and texted my boss, "10 min late." It killed me to send that to him. I was going to be early! Seriously! I hate shaving.

Hello Mr. Wilson!

2011-11-14T10:36:00.000-05:00

I looked over at my new neighbor. He was pressure washing his house. Then I looked over at my son. He was playing in the yard. I looked back over at my new neighbor working on his house and I wondered if he remembers Dennis the Menace.

The guy is older than I am and should remember the character, but that doesn't mean he does. It's funny, because this guy reminds seriously reminds me of Mr. Wilson.

My son doesn't really remind me of Dennis the Menace, but he could learn. Maybe it's time to do a Google search and let the boy see some old television.

I don't think Dennis the Menace was a bad kid. Dennis never meant any harm to Mr. Wilson, the old man just wasn't ready for it.

Fall

2011-11-12T10:44:00.001-05:00

The fall color is lasting longer than I had expected. A few weeks ago, when we traveled to NC I thought it was near peak color and that it would fade in a weeks time. I'm still seeing photos with plenty of color out there and the Greenville area of SC has magnificent color to see as of two days ago.

I think last year, by the time we got to peak color there were a few storms that blew through and knocked the color to the ground. The photo in this post was from downtown Asheville last weekend. There's still plenty of time to get out and enjoy the world before it turns grey for the winter!

Hipsters!

2011-11-10T09:09:00.000-05:00

To celebrate being a couple for twenty years, Cari and I took a weekend trip over to Asheville recently where we stayed in a nice hotel full of hipsters. The hotel was downtown, one block from the Grove Arcade and two blocks from the Occupy Asheville group of hippies. We were close to everything.

We spent the day walking around downtown checking out the architecture that surrounded us. We also visited some great shops full of boards games, yarn, more yarn, and rocks.

We stopped by the Occupy Asheville protest that was busy enjoying a beautiful weekend in the park. Once we realized nobody was going to get maced, we got bored and moved on.

There are some truly amazing places to visit in this town, and one that got our attention is the Basilica of St. Lawrence. From the outside, you can see that this church is a beautiful structure. But when I went inside I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

A large dome structure of ceramic tiles met us when we went inside. The stained glass windows on every wall were very detailed and brightly colored. From inside, you don't see any brick. Just stone and ceramic. It is beautiful and it was no wonder to us why the Catholic church gave this place the special recoginition as a basiclia. (the B+W image is not mine, but shows the scale of the large dome in the sanctuary).

After dinner we headed back to the hotel room where we contemplated doing some more shopping as we watched horrible TV. We went down to the lobby restaurant / bar for a few minutes and found the place to be full of hipsters. We immediately retreated back to our room. Right. So, just in case you missed that, let me say this another way.

On a Saturday night away from home, six PM, in for the night watching bad TV and shopping for yarn and board games on an iPod. This isn't said as a complaint. We were both very content and pleased to spend our evening this way. Together.

The next morning we headed back to the Biltmore house, one of our favorite day trips this year, and checked out the Christmas decorations that now fill the house. The pipe organ in the main dining room was playing on this day and the music can be heard throughout the lower level of the castle. It was worth another visit.

While we were at Biltmore we attempted our best imitations of being hipsters.

After spending more than half of each of our lives together, we have become more like each other in a lot of ways. Who else would enjoy a weekend avoiding hipsters and looking in shops of yarn, rocks, and board games?

Every day I find myself extremely fortunate to be with such an amazing woman. On top of all the other wonderful things I can say about her, she is perfect for me.

There's nobody else I would rather share these adventures with.

Crazy Coupons

2011-11-08T08:48:00.000-05:00

This coupon deal is getting out of hand.

Who's Scared?

2011-11-06T09:09:00.000-05:00

Meredith wanted to be a goth girl for Halloween. Cari helped her with some makeup and Meredith already had the attitude down pat.

I could tell throughout the night that she was really enjoying her new look. When I pointed this out to Cari, she asked me, "What if she wants to look like that again tomorrow?"

ALARMED!

2011-11-04T08:47:00.000-04:00

ZZZZZ.... huh? . . . . ZZZZZZ . . . huh? . . . . ZZZZZZ . . . . Ugh. . .

What's your morning wake up like? Do you hit the snooze button? Maybe you're too cool for an alarm clock. Maybe you just open your eyes, hop out of bed, and start your day without being late.

That description doesn't fit me at all. I set two alarm clocks every night. I'm not talking about just turning two alarms on each night. I change the times on each one every day. Sometimes by only ten minutes. While I'm setting my two clocks I also verify that they are set for different times, usually three or four minutes apart. If you have a hard time getting up in the morning feel free to use all my time tested strategies. Did I mention one clock is set with the real time and one is set roughly ten minutes fast?

So my two alarm clocks are set. One is across the room on a dresser and the other is on the bedside table.

Somewhere around 5:00am (+/- twenty minutes) the first alarm will sound. I promptly hit snooze and go back to sleep. For three minutes. When the second alarm goes off I promptly hit snooze and go back to sleep. For seven minutes. By the way, that's a sweet seven minutes! Keep in mind that one of the alarms caused me to get out of bed, walk a few steps, pound the buttons on top of the alarm until the sound stopped, stumble back into bed, and snuggle up in the blankets.

This process will repeat for two to three cycles. Sometimes I don't hit snooze for a few minutes on one or both clocks and the alarms will get within one minute of each other. It's really annoying when you hit snooze, close your eyes, and then another alarm jolts you before you even get comfortable! What kind of snooze lasts less than a minute? This one minute spacing also happens with poor planning during the alarm setting phase.

As I get closer to actually getting out of bed I will turn off an alarm instead of hitting snooze and then go back to bed and wait for the second alarm to sound so that I can turn it off as well. Yeah, I am very aware that I could turn it off without waiting for it, but that's not what I do.

Once both alarm clocks are off I'm up and ready to go. Unfortunately for Cari, she too, is usually awake at this point. She doesn't need an alarm clock. How many do you use?

Something NEW

2011-11-02T08:57:00.000-04:00

The house across the street sold and someone has been doing a lot of work over there during the past week. Not sure who bought it yet, but since the Yankees left, I haven't been able to write much about my neighbors.

Seems that we might have another character unknowingly joining this blog soon.

Randy went to get some toilet paper so we can welcome them to the neighborhood later tonight. They just painted the porch, so we wanted to . . . say hi . . . before the paint dries.

Jack-O-Lantern

2011-10-31T10:31:00.000-04:00

I have to start by telling you about this first photo. We were all sitting in the driveway carving pumpkins and I decided to go upstairs and get a photo of the activity. I pulled out the screen, leaned out the window and snapped a photo. Nobody was looking up at the camera. I called down to everyone and asked them to look up at me. One person asked if they had to smile. I replied, "I guess not". I'll let you decide who asked that question.

Nobody enjoys pulling all the guts out of the pumpkin. Leave me a comment if you really enjoy that part, because I'm doubting that such a person exists.

We only bother to pull the disgusting guts out of a pumpkin because that's the way to get the seeds out.

Here's our carving work:

Happy Halloween!

I'm betting after a few hours of trick-or-treating on Monday and getting loaded up on candy, nobody will question the need to smile.

Get Lost!

2011-10-29T08:58:00.000-04:00

If you are going to get lost in this corn you're going to have to do this one crawling on your belly.

This wasn't the best growing season for corn around here. Some complain, but I feel like God was just looking out for me knowing how scared I got in the maze last year.

Thankfully, there are plenty of things to do at Denver Downs in addition to chasing kids through acres of corn.

You can watch the goats try and push each other off of the raised platform.

You can watch kids try and crush each other with the over sized corn ball. (could be improved it it was on fire).

Oh yeah, I knew my kids would end up here before we left. . .

I tried to get lost in the corn maze, but it's minuscule height prevented that from happening. Maybe that family that called 911 from a corn maze should have come here to get lost.

Improve the Television

2011-10-27T10:01:00.000-04:00

There are too many channels and I can't find what I want.

My television needs to work like Google. Instead of scrolling through the 100's of channels looking for CNN, I should be able to type CNN and have it come up. The numbers are meaningless to me as a user.

In addition, I should be able to search by the name of the program or actor if I choose. If I type Survivor, take me there! I can do this with my DVR, do a search for the show and select if I'm going to watch it or record it, but there are a few problems with this current setup. First of all, the on screen keyboard is clunky and slow. Secondly, doing this type of search is buried in menus and is designed if you are looking to record something.

I admit that while thinking about this blog, I went into the menus where I would search for a program to record and I typed in CNN. On the search results was a spot to take me to the channel. WHY does this need to be buried in the menus? There should be one button on the remote that brings up a text box.

I want a small keyboard, similar to a cell phone keyboard, built into the remote. The software in the cable box or satellite reciever needs to be updated to allow for these quick searches.

I feel like it's still 1990 when I'm watching TV. I know some of the things I'm asking for can probably be had if I had a Google enabled or Apple TV. Those exist but do you know anyone that actually owns one? Anyway, what I'm asking for should be basic. It should be standard for every TV.

Why is it necessary for me to slowly scroll through three hundred channels before I can find ESPN? I should be able to hit one button, use the keyboard on my remote, type ESPN and click GO.

Someday my kids will be sitting on the couch with their kids saying, "Back in my day channels had numbers and to watch something you had to remember the damn number".

Next up on improving the television; content.

Band (again)

2011-10-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

Although he isn't in high school yet, he was invited to be a part of the marching band along with the rest of the 7th and 8th grade band members. It's been fun going to the football games and watching the band at competitions this year.

At the final home game of the season, the band had Alumni night for anyone that had previously played in band. I took them up on the offer and got my trumpet out of the closet.

We had a lot of fun playing the national anthem and playing the stand tunes that night and I've had other opportunities to play since then. Now that Randy will be in band for another five years, maybe I should keep my trumpet handy.

Fall Color on the Pkwy

2011-10-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

After packing up camp last weekend we took a trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway before coming home. I think we hit the perfect weekend to see the color. Much earlier and it would have been more green, much later and a lot would have dropped.

We have traveled a few of the sections in Western NC previously, so this time we took a section we haven't seen previously. We went North from Brevard on Hwy 276, got to the Pkwy and went East toward Asheville.

My family has named this section of the Pkwy the "Tunnel Section". In that stretch of roughly 25 miles we went through about 12 tunnels in the mountains.

This first photo is Cold Mountain.

You can see the amazing views we had from the various overlooks. It's hard to capture the vibrant color and wide open views we saw in a photograph.

Near the end of our trip we got a unique view of the Biltmore house from the Pkwy. Seeing it gave us an idea. Notice there is a little more green in the trees at the lower elevation.

To finish our trip, we made a visit to the Biltmore Estate and toured through the house.

I'm not sure this was my favorite section of the Pkwy, but it was certainly beautiful. The tunnels also added an interesting element to the trip and kept the kids entertained during a day in the car. In any season, it's always worth the drive.

Small Town Debate

2011-10-21T09:01:00.000-04:00

What does a small town political debate look like?

The candidates for City Council and Mayor were seated on the stage with an American flag above their heads. The moderator and assistants, dressed in jackets and bow ties, were seated at the front of the room facing the stage with the audience to their backs.

The debate in this small town began with a prayer. That's one of the things I love about this town. Prayer. We pray at the beginning of most any event here.

The hosts and the moderator of this event were mostly high school students that also run a local news website. From what I can tell, they are responsible for pulling the entire debate together. They were professional through the entire evening and did a fantastic job.

One of the themes that ran through the event was "come to my house". I believe all the candidates at one time or another invited anyone in town to come over and talk or ask questions. Being in a small town, everyone in the room is neighbors with one another or knows someone that is neighbors with you. I think this was proven by the openness of the men and woman running for city office. They are our neighbors.

Social media is another theme that frequented the group of candidates that are split in half by an age gap. While the younger candidates push for more technology and electronic communication by the city government, the older candidates tried to show that not everyone uses social media. "How many of you sent a tweet today?", was asked by an older candidate. A hand full of audience members along with the younger candidates raised their hands. Feeling satisfied that his point had been proven, the older gentleman went on to tell us he doesn't even have a "tweeter" to send a tweet.

The theme of technology continued through the evening and during closing statements one of the younger candidates laughed shyly as he told us to get more info about him by visiting his website.

You know the stereotype of a small town that says everyone knows everyone else? It's true. And if you don't know someone, you might know their daddy. I guess that's why one of the candidates decided to use daddy's name several times while answering questions. Daddy was a popular business man in town. It reminded me of Junior thinking he's a fantastic race car driver because his daddy was.

So what does a small town political debate look like? It's a room full of candidates and spectators that are passionate about making their small town the best small town possible, for each other.

Being at the debate and getting involved in local politics has me pumped up for the election in a few weeks. It's a bit disappointing that I will not be able to vote since I live a block outside of the city limits. But to whoever gets elected, that doesn't mean I want to be annexed. Please, please don't annex me! I'm happily supporting the town from one block away.

Camping at TableRock

2011-10-19T09:49:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since we've done a family camp out and we've all been thinking more about it this year. A few months ago, Cari and I sat down and found a campground at Table Rock State Park in South Carolina and booked our trip. This past weekend was that trip.

If you read this blog very often, you may have noticed that I go backpacking a few times a year. Camping is similar but not the same.

In camping you have a much bigger tent:

In camping you have electricity for a coffee pot:

In camping you have running water and bathrooms. (not pictured)

One thing that I don't camp with in either case is a television. Brenna wanted to bring one but we told her that you don't have TV's when you camp. After convincing her of that, I was glad she didn't notice the RV a few spots down that had a TV on the table.

We did all the expected family camping activities like camp fire stories, s'mores, hiking, and cooking on a fire. During part of our story time we played the game where you tell just a few lines of a story and then let the next person tell the next few lines and keep that going to see where the story ends up. Somehow all of our stories involved a main character with only one eye and that character always ended up at an ice cream shop. Not very scary stories when someone is always eating ice cream.

While we did have a great time, we were all ready to get home, have a real shower, and sleep in our own beds. I'll give the kids until Christmas and then we'll start planning our next camping trip.

Disconnect

2011-10-17T23:05:00.001-04:00

We had a great time camping this weekend and it was nice going without any form of internet the whole time.

Honestly, while we were there I didn't think about Twitter or G+ or any news headlines. Once I realized I couldn't have it, I moved on with my day.

BUT when we returned to civilization I picked up my phone and started wondering, "what happened while I was gone?"

How long have you gone disconnected and how did you respond?

View the Wonder

2011-10-15T11:30:00.000-04:00

We've visited Peoria, Ill on a regular basis over the years and I can't count the number of times we've driven past this tower in Peoria Heights.

During our most recent visit, we had an hour to spare before dinner so we decided to see what this thing is all about. So what is it about? It's about having a cool tower in your town. Seriously.

We paid our $2 each and hit the button to bring the elevator down. After a few minutes we interrupted the ticket lady from her magazine and asked what else we could do to get the elevator to come down.

She said it gets stuck sometimes. Please understand that this elevator is the only method from the bottom to the top of the tower. Cari asked Ticket lady, "Has anyone ever gotten stuck up there?" Ticket lady shrugged and smiled. "What do you think?", she asked. She continued to comfort us by telling us there is an emergency phone located on the elevator.

Once the elevator made it down, I saw Cari hesitate to get on. There was no hesitation on my part, I wanted to view the wonder! We were on our way to the top!

We made it to the top, without any problems from the elevator, and took the spiral stairs to the highest of three observation decks. We were standing 170 ft above the ground and had 500,000 gallons of water under our feet. The view looking out to the Illinois river was beautiful on this clear afternoon.

After some photos and looking around we decided it was time to head back down. Amanda pushed the button and the elevator arrived to take us back to the bottom. Once aboard the elevator I pushed the button to close the door. The door closed and the immediately popped back open. Cari pushed the down button and watched the doors slide closed. . . then immediately open again. I started to laugh. This elevator wasn't in the mood to take us to the bottom.

Cari rolled her eyes at the broken equipment, "Seriously?!"

After two more tries with nothing getting us to the bottom, Amanda stepped off of the elevator and pushed the button on the wall, then hopped back on before the door closed. We started to descend. For whatever reason, tricking the elevator in this manner got us down.

Viewing the wonder is partly about the amazing view from the top and partly about the wonder of the malfunctioning elevator.

FOUR BIRTHDAYS!

2011-10-13T07:38:00.000-04:00

She'll hold up four fingers and tell you she's five.

She's just trying to confuse you.

The Neighbor's New Dog

2011-10-11T11:33:00.000-04:00

The neighborhood kids found a small dog at an empty house on the block recently. They petted him and gave him tons of attention for about fifteen minutes. That's all the attention that any kid has the ability to give. Then the kids went back to play at my neighbors house. The dog followed. When I noticed the dog, I went to investigate how vicious it may be. I found the dog to be terrified of me (rightly so). It had no collar to identify it, and the kids told me they had named it Snickers. I know the dogs that live on my block and this wasn't one of them. The kids were already adopting it, and I'm glad to report that the process was taking place away from my house.

At dinner that night, I asked my daughter how Snickers was doing. She looked at me with a confused look. "You mean, S'mores?", she asked.

The next day the kids continued to play with S'mores and I noticed it had taken up sleeping on the neighbor's porch. I stood in my driveway that afternoon, pointed at the dog, and laughed. This neighbor doesn't own a dog and he doesn't want a dog. His kids, on the other hand, feed S'mores from their porch.

At dinner that night, I told my daughter that I noticed S'mores sleeping on the neighbors porch. She looked at me with a confused look. "You mean, Georgia?", she asked.

The third day of life with ~~Snickers~~ ~~S'mores~~ Georgia continued much the same. The neighbor kids and my kids continued to love the dog and even took him for a walk up and down the street. No leash required, the dog loved sticking close to the kids. When the kids went inside, I went out to cut grass. That little yappy dog stood at the edge of my neighbor's driveway and barked at me the whole time I was out there. I texted my neighbor and asked him to please put his dog inside so it would stop barking. My neighbor didn't appreciate my humor.

At dinner that night, I asked my daughter if she saw Georgia protecting the neighbor's house while I cut grass. She looked at me with a confused look. "You mean Lightening bolt?", she asked.

On day four my neighbor had a friend of his come over and pick up the dog. The friend took Lightning Bolt out to a large property where he lives, and will give the dog a good home (honest).

At dinner that night, I asked my daughter how she felt about Lightning Bolt moving away. She looked at me with a confused look. "You mean Dorito's?", she asked.

Quieter

2011-10-09T13:48:00.001-04:00

Giving the youngest some stickers helped quiet her down today.

Pumping Gas

2011-10-07T07:58:00.000-04:00

Have you ever gone to a gas station and when you started to pump gas you realize the pump handle trigger thingy doesn't have that little flippy clippy thing that locks into place so your car will fill with gas but your hands can do other stuff? Yeah. You know what I'm talking about.

That stinks, right?

Cooking Kids!

2011-10-05T10:45:00.000-04:00

I love putting my kids to work. Recently, I was in the mood for some home made granola bars so I called my three kids into the kitchen.

Here's a video of their baking skills and they'll also teach you how to make your own home made granola bars. . . maybe.

The Flight

2011-10-03T18:15:00.000-04:00

I'm typing this blog from some altitude above the clouds. You know, like where God lives.

It took a little longer to get to this height than I had expected. When we first boarded, got seated, buckled, and situated I looked up to see our pilot facing us from the front of the plane. Being my first time on a plane I thought she was just going to say good morning to us. Other passengers seemed to know she shouldn't be talking to us, she should be in the cockpit getting ready to fly this beast. With a smile, she told us that upon inspection it was discovered that the nose cone was missing a chunk of paint. She continued to explain that it was in an area where the radar is located and she didn't know if there was damage. She was still smiling and I started to think she was getting prepared to tell us we were going to give this flight a shot... as-is. Instead, she asked us to get off the plane and wait for a mechanic to arrive. A delay. No surprises there.

When we re-boarded I realized we were getting back on the same damaged plane. Does this need to be my first flight?

I feel like one of the only adult Americans that haven't been on a plane. All of my expectations of this trip were created by television and movies. Most movies that feature flight don't show a relaxed ride above the clouds, so sitting next to the window with a view of the wing, I wondered if it's supposed to vibrate like that. I'm serious people! I sat, still buckled, looking out of a tiny plastic window as the wing vibrated in the wind. Heck, it's vibrating as I type this.

Taking off was as I had anticipated. We drove down to the end of the runway and turned to face a long stretch of pavement. The engines revved up and the force of the speed had me sitting back in seat. I felt the bumps of the pavement as we sped down the stretch and then the nose lifted up a bit. A few seconds later the heavy back end left the ground with a noticeable lift. Everything was smooth as we found our way above the clouds.

Did I tell you how many plane crash stories I read back in the terminal? Three. All in the news the morning of my flight. But I didn't worry about that. This plane, with vibratey wings, was smooth sailing. The cockpit was loud, but smooth, like driving on a newly paved interstate.

And then we came to a construction zone. The plane pitched and bumped and the seat belt light came back on. Lucky for me I had never unbuckled. I looked at Cari but didn't say anything. She knew by my eyes what I was telling her. This ride shouldn't be bumpy. She smiled and said it was normal. The pilot came on the radio and announced the obvious. We were in some light turbulence and it exsisted at all altitudes.

At the end of the day I was really excited about flying. It's a really unique experience. The power that you can feel in the plane during take off is amazing.

But at the end of the weekend, after having made four flights and having two delays, I'm starting to understand the stereotypes frequent flyers attach to the experience.

I'm finishing this blog on my flight home wondering if it will be another 30 years before I return to this place above the clouds. I hope not.

Life is Delicate

2011-10-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

A seemingly healthy person, her passing was very sudden. She thought she had a case of pneumonia but when she finally went to the hospital the truth of her situation was much worse.

Her laugh is the one thing that will stay with me. She had a very cheerful laugh. One of those smiles and laughs that, if you were fortunate to hear it, will have you smiling as well.

An artist that paid such close attention to detail, as you would expect an artist to do. She expected everyone to do their best. That was probably the teacher in her. With such high expectations I was always grateful that I seemed to pass the test when marrying her granddaughter.

I always enjoyed talking with Marilyn and listening to her stories. That's probably one of the things I miss most about her.

The quickness that this happened brings to mind how delicate the human body is. How delicate life is.

Make sure you enjoy every day.

Airplane

2011-09-29T09:46:00.000-04:00

For the first time as an adult, I'm going to be going on a plane very soon. Cari's coming along with me and it makes me wonder, shouldn't we fly on separate planes in case one goes down? Just like you would never want the President and Vice President to fly together.

I'm running out of time to talk to the people that have planned this trip and I have an important message for them. . .

I'd rather a train, thank you.

One of Two

2011-09-27T11:50:00.000-04:00

Saturday was a good day for a picnic. That was my opinion anyway. Just the girls and I were at home and not much was going on. I called them into the kitchen and we packed up a lunch for a picnic.

As I described my plans to them, I realized that not everyone felt like it was a great day for a picnic. One of my lovely daughters reminded me that we have a picnic table in the backyard. I persisted on my plans and we soon arrived at the Hagood Mill historical site for a short hike and picnic.

One of the girls complained during much of the hike and my other young hiker was having a great time. After the hike, we found a soft patch of grass to have lunch in the shade.

I haven't been to the mill site in a while, and a lot of work has happened there in the past year. There is now a steel bridge over a creek. The bridge was previously used for traffic, but was replaced over time for wider, concrete bridges. There is also a large building being constructed to house the petroglyphs that have been found carved into rocks on the property. The petroglyphs are thought to be carved roughly 1,000 years ago by native americans. The building will protect the carvings and also have a display teaching about them.
Finally, there is another building on site that has a cotton gin demonstration setup and a blacksmith shop.

This soapstone boulder is thought to have been carved nearly 5,000 years ago. Two partially formed bowls are attached to the boulder. Carved with flint, after being roughly shaped, they would be broken off for final shaping and detail.

While we sat in the grass eating our lunch we could see all these new items and we discussed the history of some of these artifacts. After lunch, we examined some of the buildings a little closer before heading back home.

Until we left, I was only able to please one of my two daughters with our hike and history lesson. Guess which one was loving it. . .

Moo.

2011-09-25T08:02:00.000-04:00

I came across these photos from earlier in the summer. You can tell how excited the boy was to be dressed as a cow for a free meal at Chick-Fil-A. His mom told him if he didn't do it, he wasn't eating.

Even forced to wear an embarrassing cow costume, the boy wouldn't give up a Chick-Fil-A sandwich.

Glorious Coupons!

2011-09-23T11:58:00.000-04:00

"Look at this!", she says as she unpacks the groceries,

"They were only four cents each!"

"Looks good.", I said. "Where's the chips?"

"They weren't on sale.", she replied.

Shining Rock: The Video

2011-09-21T10:10:00.000-04:00

On September 9 and 10 we hiked some great trails in the Shining Rock Wilderness area. Here's a video of our trip:

Will it Blend?

2011-09-19T08:28:00.000-04:00

Cari broke our blender with a bit of ice and some frozen fruits. I told her we should order a Blendtec blender because it can crush a concrete block without even getting warm, but she said she only needs one that crushes ice and fruit. She found one for $10 at Walmart.

I'm going to give it a thorough testing when she goes to bed.

Shining Rock Wilderness: Backpacked

2011-09-17T09:04:00.000-04:00

It's not an adventure without a challenge.

The latest backpacking adventure took us into the Shining Rock Wilderness area in North Carolina.

We met on a Friday morning and headed up the Old Butt Knob trail. I had read that this trail was going to be steep, but I ignored that warning and planned our hike up the hill. On the map, the contour lines were so close together in this area that it was just gray on the b&w print. Somewhere I read it was a 1500 ft climb in half a mile. It felt like we climbed twice that. The trail is also known as Kick Your Old Butt Knob trail and it was given a few names as we hiked it Friday that I won't repeat.

This kicked off our adventure in the wilderness.

Eventually we made it to Shining Rock, where there is a field of white rocks.

We only encountered one or two camping groups on the mountain. One was scooping water out of small spring for their water filter, the other couldn't tell us what trail he was on.

All day Friday I was on the lookout for a bear. Not because I was scared, but because I wanted to see one. It never showed itself. The only close encounter we had Friday with nature was some kind of insect that was making his way up the inside of Chip's pant leg. When he went to swat at it, he got a sharp sting. Good thing he didn't let the bug get any higher!

That night I was at the fire at felt something biting the top of my leg. I looked down and saw a small, bright red bug on my pants. It was starting to hurt and I went to brush him off my pant leg. That's when I realized it wasn't a bug, it was FIRE.

After I confirmed I wasn't burning in the fire, I looked up to see a rabbit quietly hopping around our tent area. We contemplated eating him, but decided to let him live another day. He's lucky he came after we had all just eaten our crackers.

Across from our camp was a camp of a few women. They took several hours to build some type of tower with some large logs. It was in the form of a gateway. Two tall towers, maybe seven feet tall, with a large piece of wood stretched across the top to form the doorway. We had a good evening waiting for them to burn this monument but the girls never did burn it. It turned out that they were just going to hang laundry from this structure.

Saturday morning we broke camp and headed back into the wilderness of unmarked trails.

After a few river crossings and quick glances at our maps, we came upon a sign on the trail. This was odd since nothing was marked in the wilderness. We stopped to check the maps and found we had made a wrong turn after one of the river crossings. We were only ten minutes from the river, so turning back won over hitching on the Blue Ridge Pkwy.

That would be the only time over the two days of hiking that we would make a wrong turn. Not bad for a group of amateurs wandering around a wilderness chock full of unmarked trails.

Our Saturday lunch was on the river. We perched ourselves on some boulders in the middle of the river and took a much needed break. One of the things that struck me the most about the river was how incredibly clear it was. You could see very clearly every rock sitting on the bottom of the river.

Eventually Saturday afternoon we emerged from the woods back at the road and at the parking lot where we had left our cars on Friday.

Before we began, I found this hand sketched map of the trails converging on a website. I printed it out and it was extremely helpful understanding this section of the trail. If you ever go into Shining Rock Wilderness, print this map out and keep it in your pocket. The other thing that was really helpful in keeping us on the correct trail were several small cairns (stacks of stones) that had been built at various intersections. I think there was twice where we had some doubt about which direction to take and a cairn answered the question.

We had some challenges on our two days of hiking. Challenges with the terrain and challenges with keeping pointed in the right direction. But that's okay, because the challenges make an adventure.

As always, we had a great trip, and I can't say enough good things about the two men that suffer through each of these hikes with me. Thanks Aaron, thanks Chip, for sharing in the adventure.

What's for Dinner?

2011-09-15T10:03:00.000-04:00

I had the opportunity recently to stay home for a few days while Cari made a trip to see some family. This put me in charge of the house. I had to pick up kids from every corner of the Earth, figure out dinner, get homework done, clean up, get kids in bed on time, etc. . . Oh yeah, I also told my boss I would be available those days, so I was working at home a bit through the day as well.

It didn't take long before I was ready to give control of the house back to my wife.

I had money and plans to eat pizza one night, so of course, the kids and I voted to do that on the first night.

The rest of the time I planned meals at the last possible second. Nobody starved and only one kid complained. The problem was with the day that Cari was expected home.

We anticipated her to be home close to dinner time. I figured after a full 12 hour day in the car she would be ready to cook us a real meal! The kids and I were tired of my quasi cooking.

When homecoming day arrived, and the hours clicked by, I realized that she wouldn't be home until hours after dinner time. Damn. I was out of ideas.

So on the last night of running the house I started digging in the cupboards. I needed something quick and easy. Mostly easy. Food supplies were running low because I hadn't done any grocery shopping through the week. I had used up all of my supplies based on the time I thought I had to fill.

Here's a quick scan of what I checked for:

Hot dogs - nope.
Chicken nuggets - nope.
Frozen pizza - nope.
cereal - yep!
cheese - yep!
ice cream - yep!
pickles - yep!

Here's your choice kids. You can have a bowl of cereal and a pickle or some cheese with a piece of bread. I thought I was going to have a mutiny on my hands so I offered up some ice cream to make peace.

It's a good thing Cari came home that night. Those kids weren't going to allow me to serve another meal.

The Tablet

2011-09-13T12:51:00.000-04:00

I couldn't resist any longer. I had to give in and purchase a new gadget. I purchased the Acer A500 tablet.

Here's what I can tell you about having a tablet. I don't need one, and I find it hard to believe anyone would really need one. It is useful and it can be fun to play with, but it still falls strictly under luxury item in my mind.

I don't have a laptop. I have my phone and the desktop computer. So for me, this tablet filled the gap of electronics instead of getting a laptop. I've had the opportunity to take it out of town with me and it was easy to have something that size tucked in my bag. The times I find myself using the tablet are times I feel like I would use a laptop if I had one. So, if you have a laptop you may have even less reason to purchase a tablet at this time.

If you have a smart phone running the Android operating system, then picking up a tablet running Android will be an easy transition. For the most part, the tablet uses the same apps as the phones do. Some developers are getting better at creating content to look good on the larger screen, and I'm seeing more come on board each week.

A few things that work really well on the tablet are reading news, watching videos, sketching / drawing, social media, reading books, and general web browsing. I've also found a few games that work well on the tablet. One game that works well with multiple people is Carcassonne. Carcassonne is a digital version of a card game of the same name. It's very convenient to play on the tablet because you eliminate setup time and clean up. Also, the game keeps track of scoring and it's easier just to focus on playing the game.

After having the tablet for about a month, I still find myself using it pretty frequently. It still sits squarely in the luxury category, but fills the gap that existed between my phone and my desktop computer. It never was easy to drag the desktop out to the couch while watching TV.

Nine Eleven

2011-09-11T09:11:00.000-04:00

I was at work that morning. Working as an assistant manager in one of the busiest stores of a major retailer. I went up to the manager's office. The moment in time that is frozen in my mind is the manager on his Blackberry. I can see it very clearly. Where everyone was standing, what pose everyone was in. He told me that a plane crashed into a building in New York.

I imagined it as a small Cessna hitting a skyscraper and I thought, "Well, that's stupid". It never entered my mind of what was actually happening. Within five minutes of hearing that first bit of news my phone rang. It was Cari. She was at home watching the events on TV. Now a second plane crashed. I believe that's when I realized what was actually starting to happen. It was insane.

In the store, everyone was getting calls from home and customers were starting to hear what was happening. We didn't have a television in the store, so we were getting reports over the phone and from customers. Everyone was whispering across the store the reports that they had heard.

The store started to empty out as time ticked on. People were going home to get the news.
After a few hours, an employee that was scheduled later in the day came in. He brought a small TV and a VCR. He had recorded the news all morning and wanted to give us a chance to see for ourselves. That was my first view of the planes and the burning buildings.

We went back out to the sales floor and there wasn't a customer in the store. I looked outside to the empty parking lot and the busy highway in front of our store. The highway was empty. It was a ghost town.

I remember driving home on empty roads, but I don't remember if I left work early or not that day. We spent the rest of the evening watching the news at home.

It wasn't long after September 11 that I picked up the Bible that had been sitting in lost and found and started reading it.

Not many events get etched into memory like that day. This is one that all Americans share as a common memory and it's interesting to hear how we all lived those same moments. If you would take five minutes of your time, I'd like to hear your story of that morning. Add your story to the comments.

Carry Me. . .

2011-09-10T11:11:00.000-04:00

On the trail. Can't blog today. Will someone please carry me up this hill? 1500 ft of elevation gain in 1/2 a mile. Someone do the math. How much elevation gain is that per step?

The Moth

2011-09-08T12:15:00.000-04:00

The Moth is a New York City based nonprofit organization that conducts live storytelling events. They feature some fantastic story tellers. There is a free podcast that you can download and listen to each week. The podcast is normally around five minutes long and features a winning story teller from one of The Moth events. You can also find them on YouTube featuring some of their story tellers.

As a sample, here is Steve Burns . It's Steve from the Nickelodeon show, Blue's Clues!

If you enjoy hearing a good story then you really have to start checking out The Moth.

Church Signs

2011-09-06T11:08:00.000-04:00

I drive past a lot of churches everyday and always notice their signs. Some do a better job than others at drawing my attention or causing me ponder on their witty words. Here are two recent signs that got my attention and had me think about their short messages.

Be patient with others as God is with you.

We don't change the message. The message changes us.

Church signs are the Twitter of religion. Some do a better job at holding your attention and some hold a lot of meaning.

Baseball Day

2011-09-04T10:17:00.000-04:00

Some friends have a suite at the baseball stadium and invited us to use it for a recent home game. I'm not normally terribly interested in baseball, but I have been to a few games previously. Randy and I went with some neighbors.

First thing is when you have tickets to a suite in the stadium, you also get a VIP parking pass to park next to the stadium instead of walking thirteen blocks like everyone else. Already I knew this would be a really cool experience.

When we got inside and upstairs we found our room and walked in.

Inside were bowls of food and a small refrigerator with drinks. A TV hung on the wall, and there was a counter to sit at and look through the windows at the field below. There was also a telephone on the counter with an info card telling us to pick up that phone if we needed anything. Next to the windows was a glass door leading to a balcony with about twenty seats.

We sat outside and watched the game on a beautiful day. Even if you don't care much about baseball, I could hardly think of a more relaxing thing than sitting up there listening to the game.

Somewhere around the fourth inning a woman came out and told us she had brought us some food and left it in the room. This day just kept getting better and better. Inside we found a huge tray of hamburgers, another of hot dogs, and plates of all the condiments you would want.

Randy and his friend had low interest in the game and once the food came, they stayed in the room eating and talking for the rest of the game.

I continued to sit outside and watch the game. One of the things I liked about this field was the old time feel to the score board. There was a guy sitting in there behind one of the zeros, the one that was half taken out. He was watching the game and updating the score board by hand as it happened.

Near the end of the game we went back into the room to find a large tray of cookies. Thankfully I was able to get one before the kids ate them all.

Everything about the game and being in that suite made for a great day. The suite was a new experience for me and was something great.

On top of that, I was reminded about the special sights, sounds, and smells of a baseball game. Special even if you aren't normally a big fan of baseball.

Thank you? No! Thank Me.

2011-09-02T08:30:00.000-04:00

I had the honor of taking Randy to the open house at school the other night. As I parked the car, we were talking about teachers. A lot of people like to thank the teachers for the work they do and that got me thinking.

The teacher should thank ME! If I hadn't gone through all the trouble of making these kids and keeping them alive this long, the teacher wouldn't even have a job. The teachers owe me thanks for their careers. I think they owe me a dinner too.

Randy and I decided we like Olive Garden.

This Church is Closed

2011-08-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday I attended the closing ceremony of a church. It doesn't really sound like a big deal when I say that. I look around and there are churches on nearly every corner. I'm sure churches close all the time. But this church, Sharon United Methodist church, was established in 1873.

In attendance was a group of about a dozen from my current church and one couple from the disbanding Sharon church. The reason they were disbanding was because they no longer had an active membership that was able to sustain the church. I'm lead to believe there were fewer than ten members still around.

The building itself was also from the 1870's and sitting inside the old sanctuary I observed a lot of details that showed the work and love that people had put into this place.

But the significance of the closing of this church was not the history of the building itself. It's what that building. . . what that church. . . did for the community when it was active. For more than 100 years people came from surrounding farms to worship at Sharon UMC. People were married. Babies were baptized. Families mourned the dead. Communion was served and lives were changed in this sanctuary.

The fifteen or so of us in attendance sang a hymn and I looked at the old wood plank walls and ceiling. I heard the floor creak as we stood. After the hymn the pastor asked the couple, whom had obviously attended church at Sharon their whole lives, if they had any memories or thoughts they wanted to share.

The man spoke up and pointed to the corner, next to the pulpit. He told us that's where the choir sat when he was a boy. His grandfather was the choir director and his aunt played the piano. He was still motioning toward the corner where an old piano was sitting. As he told his story I could imagine the choir taking their place at the front of the sanctuary and the piano playing as people arrived on Sunday morning.

Next the woman spoke and told us that they were married in the sanctuary in the 1970's (She remembers when she was married, I just don't remember the specific date. I didn't want you to think she had forgotten). Knowing that this would be the last time in her church, she was emotional as she told us her memories. She told us about bringing their children to be christened in the sanctuary and she motioned near the front of the church.

During the service the pastor used a common phrase, "If these walls could talk". She was right. With all the history and all the lives that have been touched in the 100 plus years of Sharon church it is sad to see the doors closed for the last time. Standing in the parking lot, outside of the wooden structure, I thought back 100 years when rural farmers and their families would come together on Sunday morning and worship God.

When I was headed over to the service to close Sharon United Methodist on Sunday morning I didn't think it was a big deal but after the service I had a different understanding of the significance of this old rural church.

High School Football

2011-08-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since the last time I've been to a high school football game. This year Randy is playing with the high school marching band so it gives me a great excuse to be there.

This past Friday night was the first game of the season. There was a great crowd for this first game. It was the first game in a brand new stadium at a newly constructed school.

At half time our school had a comfortable lead in the game. I had forgotten how exciting these games can be and how much fun it is when the crowd gets enthusiastic for their home team.

The band came out for their first performance of the year and did a great job.

From my memory, the cheerleaders stood on the sidelines with their pom poms performing their cheers. The cheerleaders at our high school do that as well, but they also do some pretty impressive stunts. The first time they did that during the game it caught me off guard a bit. I wasn't expecting to see a girl pop up from the middle of them all.

My first experience back at a Friday night football game was a good one and was made even better by the fact that the home team won their first game of the season. I'm looking forward to the next game already.

There Goes the Neighborhood

2011-08-27T05:00:00.000-04:00

I went through a stage on my blog writing about my neighbors. They all had stereotyped on the blog and we had some fun with them. I haven't done that in a while. There's probably more than one reason why that slowly came to a stop, but today I thought I'd give you an update.

The Yankee family. The one with the boy that wouldn't take a hint around dinner time. They moved. There was something about the husband bringing his girlfriend over to the house to meet his wife. Somehow that just didn't work out for him. I believe they stopped paying on the house and it now sits empty.

The grass maniac doesn't have time any more. I kinda take that as a small victory. As my lawn mower spews weed seeds into the border land, he just couldn't keep up. I think he finally just gave in. It was either that or he was going to have to start maintaining half of my yard too.

Atheist. Yeah. He's still there. Not really sure what is going on over there besides not praying to God. But for whatever reason they generate A LOT of garbage in that house. What I do know is on a hot summer day, sometimes the rotting stench of trash increases the amount that I pray.

There's now another empty house on the block. I'm just waiting for some (friendly) squatters to show up and claim one of the empty houses.

At least I would be able to start blogging about them.

Focused

2011-08-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

She takes Bubble Burst seriously.

Engagement!

2011-08-23T06:30:00.000-04:00

One of the kids was checking out Cari's wedding ring the other day and asked her where the other ring was. At first I wasn't sure what my daughter was asking, but then she asked again, "Where's the second ring? The one with the diamond?"

Cari clarified, "You mean an engagement ring?" I spun my chair around to face them and Cari continued, "I didn't get one."

My daughter looked horrified. "Well, if my husband tries that I'm going to kick him."

Double Digits

2011-08-21T09:07:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday!

Exploring with Tom!

2011-08-19T08:59:00.000-04:00

Tom and I have known each other for several years but have never met in person. He reads my blog. I read his. He and I both have Flickr accounts and watch each other's photography. When Google+ first started up, we tried a video chat Hangout for a few minutes.

Our only interaction away from the computer has been the one time that Tom stalked me at the Biltmore house. Well, the mystery has ended. Tom and I finally got to head out and do some exploring with our cameras.

Having such an online presence creates a unique situation when you meet someone for the first time. You both know each other already. You pretty well know what to expect when you meet that person face to face and this was true for me on our trip.

Cateechee school: No trespassing was posted everywhere. Would have been great to go in, but we respected the signs here.

Bridge to nowhere at Cateechee. The old mill that this bridge used to lead to has been demolished. This is the bridge that mill workers would take to go in to work.

Same bridge as above.

This is a tomb at the Old Pickens Courthouse. It caught our attention because of the hand carving on the stone. I also noticed that it listed the age to the day. 26 years, 6 months, 2 days old.

Part of a gate leading into a family cemetery located at the Old Pickens Courthouse.

This shot is in Liberty. Behind an old warehouse we found an old rail line leading up to a loading ramp.

I believe this was in Newry. This house is covered in vines and vegetation. The roof has some wooden shingles on it and someone rigged a ladder heading up to do some repair work.

I'm not sure that looks safe enough that I'd try it.

Tom planning his attack on the Newry mill.

Approach at the Newry mill.

Inside the mill.

It was very dark in there.

This is with the flash on. The air in this room was horrible. Very stale and . . . I'm not sure how exactly to describe it other than stale. It wasn't good.

We didn't venture far from the entrance to the mill and this one room. The wooden stairs were in bad shape and from our downstairs view, we could see holes through the 2nd story floor.

During our day we didn't get arrested for tresspassing and nobody got chased by a loose dog, so I would say this was a successful trip.

You don't often get to meet someone for the first time that you have known for so long. The internet is good at creating these opportunities. Tom writes on a lot of interesting topics on his BLOG so be sure to check it out if you haven't already. He's got some great photography to check out as well.

The Smell

2011-08-17T09:38:00.007-04:00

Something smells HORRIBLE. Hopefully this spray will make everything ok again.

Baby Talk

2011-08-15T10:54:00.002-04:00

The kids have done a good job of teaching the adults in my house some new words over the years. Here's some of the favorites that Cari and I have adopted over time.

Instead of an iPod, Cari has a Upod
Instead of a tablet, I have a WePad (It's not an iPad)
Instead of doing something tomorrow, we'll do it ToMario
It's not a TV or Television. It's a T
When you aren't sure what to say, just say, "Awkward Hamster"

Google vs Amazon music

2011-08-13T09:44:00.024-04:00

Our electronics are becoming less focused on a single job and more like computers and multi functioning. This is like the time when you purchased a universal remote and put the other five remotes in a drawer. A recent change has been with music. I no longer have to carry a specific MP3 player. I can hear my music on my phone, on my computer, or on my tablet. If I have any one of those, I have all of my music. For a long time I would have to manually transfer that music to each device and take up memory on each one.

There are a lot of options for putting your music in the cloud. I have really only investigated using two of these new services. The ones by Google and by Amazon MP3. Cloud music storage basically means your music is held on the internet in your account and you can access it anywhere that you can connect to the internet. Any of those devices, including your computer, can access all of your music without having to take up the internal memory storing all of your favorite 80's music.

Both services stream music to devices. Both services allow a sufficient amount of space for a moderate user like myself. Both services allow you to download the music to your device. Both are free! One of the things that separates these services is purchasing. I can purchase music on Amazon MP3 and it is automatically loaded into my online account, ready for streaming (or downloading). Google doesn't have a music store. You can only upload music to them.

Another difference is the way that you access the music. The software. In my opinion, Google has a much better experience on mobile devices with a nice app to access your music. The Amazon music app just doesn't seem to give as good of an experience in my opinion.

So which one is better? It's going to be a user preference. Amazon offers to let you skip the step of uploading as you purchase. After you've uploaded your music, Google is better to use. I'm going with Google because, I don't purchase new music very often. Once I got past the initial upload and setup, it's the day to day use that means more to me. So, Google felt like the way to go for me. If you buy a lot of music and want to skip a step, Amazon might be better for you.

If you are one of the 5 billion people who own an iPod then you probably stopped reading a long time ago because you are going to be using iTunes.

Have you tried any online music storage / player? Do you have a favorite? Tell me why in the comments.

Yogurt Blog! (take 7)

2011-08-11T08:35:00.005-04:00

Here's my video yogurt blog. I know you've all been anxiously awaiting this and your wait is over.

Little Commercials

2011-08-09T08:29:00.003-04:00

I've realized that everything we buy is branded. My camera strap has Nikon written across it with large print. My shoes, my cell phone (3 brands there),and my car all have the manufacturer name printed on them. It's almost harder to think of items that aren't branded vs the ones that are. We, the users, have become little commercials.

This all seems pretty obvious to you. The part of the branding that caught my attention recently is shirts. We've gone from a time of having a small alligator on the breast of a shirt, to having a brand take up the entire shirt. Ever seen an OLD NAVY shirt? How about HOLLISTER or ABERCROMBIE? Those last two are having some sort of contest to see who can print their name the biggest on your shirt.

Who decided to do this? When did that become cool? Some guy sitting in a board room at Hollister decides that shirts just need the company name spread across them as large as possible. And it worked. All the cool kids are doing it. But who told the cool kids this was cool?

Oh hell! This blog is coming unraveled as I write it. The direction I was going to go was to suggest that it's crazy to have this large billboard on your shirt. Who decides what brands can get away with this? But then I look down and I'm wearing a Jeff Gordon shirt with a large display of DUPONT. This Hollister thing is not much different than supporting your favorite sports team by wearing their shirt or hat. Is it out of the question to wear a black t-shirt with a large white apple printed on it? Not really. Just showing support for your "team".

Really, in this sense, any company - any brand - that can find ways to connect with their fans can get away with this. I'd wear a shirt with the Google logo on it. The companies that can't connect to their customers are missing the opportunity.

The opportunity to use your customer as a mobile advertising campaign. All the cool kids are doing it.

The Digital Mirage

2011-08-07T09:35:00.001-04:00

It can be difficult to find time to sit down and write, so when I get a few minutes I need to get to it. This morning, I knew I had a few minutes, so I opened up a blank page and stared. While I formed the idea for the blog in my head, I started clicking through some bookmarks in my browser and ended up looking at an update from The Digital Mirage. This super photographer has been finding interesting and often abandoned locations to photograph. In his blog you see a great collection of images along with interesting stories and histories of these forgotten locations.

I've read his blog off and on for a several years now and was reminded this morning how great his work is. I encourage you to take a few minutes and look at some of these fantastic places he has documented.

The Digital Mirage blog

The few minutes I had available to sit down and write this blog are now gone. Used up being distracted on the internets. I hope you enjoyed the distraction.

Stop It!

2011-08-05T09:38:00.000-04:00

Who thought this was a good idea? Not what I had hoped for on the way home from work.

Beat the Heat!

2011-08-03T10:15:00.000-04:00

I've had this photo idea in my head since the beginning of the summer, but somehow have never found time to make it happen. Well, we finally did it. It took three of us to execute my idea. One in the chair, one holding the hose, and the last holding the trigger to the camera. The kids and I took turns in each role so that we'd all get a good soaking by the cool water.

So the idea was a photo of me reading the newspaper outside while sitting in a kiddy pool. At the same time I would be cooled off by the cold water of the hose.

After taking the shots that I had planned we just took turns soaking each other.

Twitter Broke My DVR

2011-08-01T08:53:00.000-04:00

When I first got TiVo it changed the way I watched TV. As you know, with the DVR you can watch TV on your schedule instead of the schedule that the network creates. Life with TiVo is awesome.

As technology and the internet pressed forward, Twitter entered into my life. Each day Twitter gains more users and it becomes more than just a place just to say, "I like turtles". One of the cool things with Twitter becoming main stream is how celebrities can interact with their fans. I now follow several NASCAR and Formula 1 drivers. I follow actors from some of my favorite shows. I also started following Jeff Probst from Survivor. This level of access to celebrities is easier than ever before.

Last year Jeff Probst started tweeting live during the broadcasts of Survivor. He would interject behind the scenes info, his personal thoughts about the action on the screen, and even photos of him at home. During commercials he would answer questions that users were sending him about the show. It was really great. I was watching TV with Jeff!

This progress didn't come without a cost. With all the technology at my fingertips I found myself regressing to a time before the DVR. I was no longer watching Survivor on my schedule, I was watching it on CBS's schedule. I wanted to sit down and watch Survivor with Jeff Probst. Watching it on Saturday morning wasn't as good as watching it live.

Those Nascar drivers on Twitter like to post about their day at the end of the race. It's great to get their reaction to what happened on the track so quickly. But if I'm not sitting in front of my TV on Sunday when the checkered flag comes out, I'm sure to see the winner on Twitter before TiVo gets there. Here again, if I want to join in this interactive experience that Twitter provides, I'm going to make time to watch it live.

That's how Twitter broke my DVR.

Jesus Smiles

2011-07-30T10:36:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't seen it yet, and I'm not sure how that would have happened, here's a great prayer just before a Nascar race. Styled after a prayer in the movie Talledega Nights.

Game Review

2011-07-28T10:44:00.000-04:00

Today we are going to review a game that's been around for a while. Maybe you've played it, it's called Elefun.

After you put all of your fabric butterflies in the belly of the beast, the participants must get their nets ready. The elephant has a long trunk that aims toward the ceiling and as the butterflies make their escape, it's your job to capture them in your net. To get the action started, one person needs to reach around and flip the switch at the base of the tail.

Initially you will get a burst of butterflies. After that, it will be a few at a time until they have all come shooting out of the trunk. Each round lasts about two minutes.

I knew that the kids would love it, especially Brenna, and I was right. What surprised me was how into the game the adult got. I was taking photos of them playing, and you can see how desperately the adult wanted to win. I've documented three types of play that I describe as fouls.

FOUL! PUSHING.

FOUL! TWO NETS.

FOUL! HOLDING.

Elefun is a fun game as the name suggests. While it may look like a child's game, even the adults enjoy this one. One thing that the rule book doesn't describe is how to handle players who constantly foul. I wish the makers of the game would have addressed this common problem, but it is easy enough to create house rules to fix this problem.

Or you could just make her sit in the corner like I did.

Photo Shoot

2011-07-26T09:04:00.000-04:00

I asked the youngest if I could take some photos of her after church and to my surprise she said yes! I jumped on the opportunity and we went out to the porch.

She started out paying attention and doing overall pretty good. Within about ten minutes she started getting sillier and sillier until it devolved into a drooling, hand licking, shoe kissing affair.

Here's a few of my favorites from that morning.

Stereotypes

2011-07-24T11:38:00.000-04:00

Stereotypes come in handy sometimes. Like if you are driving down the highway you will try to avoid the women drivers. Especially if they are blonde. Right? Because you know how they are.

A few times a week I drive past this bakery.

The driveway leads to a house up on a hill and it has always had me curious about what was up there. I had it in my head what it would look like inside. Maybe just a kitchen with an extra counter to serve the random passerby.

This past Friday, I decided to stop in and see what was going on. I was hoping to buy something but I wasn't sure what kind of variety of goods would be there. I turned at the familiar light house marker and drove up the driveway, past a cow, and around the back side of the house. There were parking spaces for half a dozen cars and a sign on the door letting me know that they were open.

The room was kinda small. There was a rack of baked goods in the center and shelves lined two walls with more treats. The third wall had a cooler with pies. Across from me was a glass counter with cakes and cookies. Behind the counter stood two Mennonite women.

A stereotype popped in my head and I realized that all of this food will be delicious. I've eaten at a Mennonite restaurant before and I still brag about how incredible it was. I looked around for a few minutes and talked to another customer that was trying to decide what to get. She told me I couldn't go wrong with anything in the shop.

I finally decided to get one of each of the three flavors of turnovers. Blackberry, cherry, and apple. Everyone was really friendly at the Swartzentruber's Bakery and everything in there smelled tempting.

But the really important thing to know is if the bakery lives up to the stereotype I put on it. After dinner, I presented my surprise dessert and it was a great success! Cari is already planning on giving me a shopping list for the next time I drive past there.

What have you learned today? If you ever see a Mennonite / Amish restaurant or bakery you need to stop in. Stereotypes are true sometimes or they wouldn't be stereotypes. Did you know all bloggers own cats?

I have two.

Garden (beta)

2011-07-22T09:20:00.000-04:00

I got interested in trying my hand at having a garden about a month ago. It's a bit late to start, but I decided to get some seeds and see what would happen.

This summer is phase one of my garden (beta). Phase one is plant some seeds in large pots and see if anything green will turn up. Sure enough some small green bean and corn plants shot out of the dirt within a week! Success! Now to see if I can generate anything from the plants this year.

The corn will have to be transplanted into the soil soon, but I may attempt to leave the beans in the pot unless they become too large.

Phase two is next spring. Now that I know I can get the plants started, I'm going to start a small garden next year with a variety of vegetables. I won't even start them in the pots next year. Straight to the ground.

Phase three is . . . hey! Let's get through phase two before I start revealing all of my plans.

I'll post another blog at the end of the summer and let you know how garden (beta) turns out.

Planning

2011-07-20T10:01:00.000-04:00